The Opposite of Insomnia
by FlamingSwans
Summary: Mr. Gold had better punishments in mind than untimely death. But then again, magic is different in this world. You never know what may happen. Captain Swan AU for "The Cricket Game."
1. Wake Up, Pirate

**Quick factoid: I originally posted this on my other account, OnceUponABopper, but after constant hate messages I deleted my account, opening this one so that I could bookmark my favorite stories and whatnot, but I've finally decided to give posting things another go, so here's the re-repost of "The Opposite of Insomnia"!**

~Once Upon A Time~

Rumpelstiltskin was not what one might call "forgiving". This fact was quite eminent when a certain charming swashbuckler threatened the life of the woman he loved.

From the way Rumpelstiltskin saw it, Killian Jones deserved death. No, not death. Something far worse, like death ten times over. And once this thought lodged itself into the Dark One's mind, there was no doubt that it could be removed. _Surely Belle will understand_, he thought._ I am doing everything with her best interest in mind, after all._

And oh, what a wonderful twist of events it would be!

It was with this that Mr. Gold left Belle in his shop, alone with a gun she wasn't certain how to operate, and took off for his home. There were preparations to be made.

~ Once Upon A Time ~

Killian Jones sat in his quarters aboard his ship. From the bored expression on his face and the way he was filing his hook into a pencil-fine point, it would appear that nothing was amiss.

This could not be any more wrong.

Because, although he didn't know it yet, Killian's foe, Mr. Gold was preparing something. Magically, to be more specific.

In Mr. Gold's basement was his large expanse of magical artifacts that had been collected over 300 years of dark and evil witchcraft. Gold stalked across the cold cement floor, pulling open drawers in search for something. At last stumbling upon a small metal box, he slid his black leather gloves over his hands. Pulling out one of three small daggers, no bigger than pocketknives, Gold began preparing his concoction. He had done this spell many a time, although not to this degree or under theses circumstances.

To alter a spell in itself is not difficult. All it takes are a few enchanted objects and strong willpower. But Rumpelstiltskin had never cast such a powerful spell as a sleeping curse onto a dagger. He had once done it to a rock, but that had been proven not to be very useful. And above all, this would be difficult given his location, in this land without magic. It was all different there. But about an hour and one accident with magic flower dust up his nose later, he had done it. Rumpelstiltskin had enchanted a dagger with a sleeping curse.

The only thing left was finding the codfish he was going to gut with it.

~ Once Upon A Time ~

It was not until he heard the ever-so-faint sound of boots on the creaky wood that Hook knew of his ship's intruder. He stealthily armed himself with one of his many swords that he kept handy, and silently crept along the deck in search for the invader.

It was just seconds too late for the captain when his old enemy had him cornered.

With one flick of the cane, Rumpelstiltskin had Hook suspended midair by the ropes that secured the mast of the pirate ship. His sword clattering to the ground, his arms falling limp as he hung up-side down above the ageless magician. "Ah, I see you've still got that combative reflex after three hundred years in Neverland," The Dark One cracked, balancing himself on his cane and staring up at the pirate, grinning at his enemy's discomfort. "and that same youthful glow."

Killian scowled, trying to kick himself free, to no avail. "So what now, crocodile? You're going to kill me? Go on then, do it! Rip out my heart like you did Milah's! Then she and I can finally be together again!"

Gold gave an evil smile. "Oh, I'm not going to kill you. I have a much more suitable punishment." He flicked his cane once more and Hook fell ten feet to the wooden deck. The pirate tried to bring himself to his feet, but his adversary stopped him the a sharp blow to the temple. Hook grunted in pain, falling back over onto his back. Mr. Gold kept Hook on the ground by pressing his cane into the pirate's chest, leaving bruises. He pulled out the dagger he had enchanted and raised it.

"Well if you're not going to kill me, what exactly do you have in mind to do with that?" Killian questioned, trying to get up.

"This, dearie, is a punishment more worthy of you." And with that, Gold drove down the dagger, only to hear a woman's shrill voice calling out to him.

"Rumpel, no!" Belle cried, tripping as she scrambled aboard the ship.

But it was too late. Hook had a full second to process what had happened before the dagger protruding from his abdomen did its job. Ripples of purple magic covered him like a shield, and his eyes snapped closed. His heartbeat slowed to nearly a halt, and dropping.

Belle kneeled at his side, too afraid to touch him in fear of being cursed as well. "What did you do to him?!" She asked Gold, who stood over the pirate's body triumphantly.

"I put him under a sleeping curse." He stated, as if this sentence solved everything. "Just leave him, Belle. Let's go home."

"No!" She yelled, standing up to look at his face. "Not after what you've just done!"

"He deserved it, Belle!" Gold insisted, like a petulant child.

"No. Nobody deserves this." Belle responded, pointing at Hook, who no longer had the magic shield around him. With that, she checked for Hook's pulse, only to find it weak and thready. "We've got to get him to the hospital." She said, lifting Hook's head onto her lap. "You need to help me carry him!"

Gold shook his head. "After everything I went through to get my revenge, why should I help him? Besides, it's no use. The hospital can't cure a sleeping curse."

"Please! Prove to me that there's good inside you! Just help me get him to the hospital!" But upon seeing Belle's face and the shamed look she showed him, he hesitantly accepted. "I'll lift his arms, you hold his feet."

~ Once Upon A Time ~

To receive a phone call mid-cereal bite seemed to be one of Emma Swan's many curses. She hit the "accept call" button and said through a mouth of Raisin Bran, "Shrf Swan."

"Hello, this is Dr. Whale. I'm calling to report a John Doe that was just brought in in a coma. Apparently he was stabbed, and then dropped off at the front door. We don't know who did either."

"Okay. I'll head down there and check it out. Thanks."

"Of course." The doctor clicked the phone off.

Mary Margaret gave her daughter a strange look. "What happened?"

"There's a stabbing victim in a coma at the hospital. I need to go check everything out."

"I'll go with you!" Prince Charming, aka Emma's father called from the bathroom, stumbling out of it with a toothbrush in his mouth while trying to put his flannel shirt on.

"I'll go, too." Mary Margaret said, earning her stares from both husband and child.

"I could help." She cocked her head to the side. "You know, if there are birds involved."

~ Once Upon A Time ~

Everything was smoke and mirrors. Literally.

In his dream state, Hook could only sit in one of the many window-less rooms that were filled of nothing but mirrors and darkness. But every so often his mind would wonder, and he would see things in the mirrors. Instead of seeing him own reflection, Hook would see his own memories and thoughts. At one point, he saw Milah's heart being crushed in the Dark One's hand. At another, he saw himself and his drunk bum of a father on the day his mother died. Then he saw Emma Swan walking away, leaving him chained up in the Giant's home. All of these seemed to have a recurring theme, which echoed in his mind as clear as if someone were actually speaking to him.

Everybody leaves.

These thoughts collected and seemed to fill up the entire room. There was no use in fighting it. This curse would last forever. Killian Jones would be trapped in a room of memories and mirrors until the day he died.

He could only hope that this day would be soon.

~ Once Upon A Time ~

Emma paced back and forth along Hook's hospital room. Snow and Charming sat in chairs out of the way, growing anxious as their daughter nearly burned a rut into the floor from the pacing.

"Emma, stop! You're driving me nuts!" Mary Margaret said.

Emma stopped and threw herself down in the chair beside them. "This just doesn't make any sense!" She flung her hands up in the air and slumped down in her seat. "The doctor said he's got a bruised temple, two bruised ribs and a knife wound. None of that should be enough to put a guy in a coma!"

"Well, that's not important right now. What we need to focus on is waking him up, and that's not going to happen with us sitting here doing nothing." Snow said, standing up and heading for the door. "I'm going to go get some lunch from Granny's. You want anything?" She asked, putting on her coat.

"No thanks." Emma said.

"Wait up, I'll go with you." Charming said, hurrying to open the door for his lady.

"Thanks." Snow laughed, and the couple disappeared from sight. Emma paced for a few more minutes until she finally plopped down in the seat beside Hook's bed. She closed her eyes and tried for a full ten seconds to sleep, but gave up on it immediately. She rested her head in her hand and looked at Hook's still form.

This was so surreal, seeing him like this. Not cracking jokes or sexual innuendo, not trying to seduce her with his eyebrows. He was just...still. If Emma focused really hard, she could see his chest rise a fraction of a centimeter before falling again, but he still wouldn't wake up. She shifted awkwardly in her boots, playing with the zipper of her jacket.

Buried deep inside her brain, Emma wished that Hook would open his eyes, smirk at her and say something sarcastic about bedside manner. The sheriff stood and leaned against the rail on the bed.

She sighed. "You're not going to wake up, are you?" Emma asked Hook solemnly. She brushed her hand against his for a fraction of a second before turning to leave.

But as she was opening the door, she heard a loud beeping of his heart monitor and looked back just in time to see the line on it going flat.

~ Once Upon A Time ~

Hook felt a pressure in his chest. He pressed his hand to his heart and was surprised to find that he couldn't feel it beating. But although his heart was still dead, everything in this world of mirrors stayed the same.

Hook half expected to keel over and for everything to fade to black, but it didn't. The memories kept flying through the air just as they had before. Killian wasn't sure what was going on with his body back in Storybrooke, but he knew it couldn't be good.

~ Once Upon A Time ~

"No, no!" Emma grabbed fistfuls of her hair. Dr. Whale did chest compressions on the pirate, a nurse counting and pulling on seemingly random IVs and pushing buttons.

The beeping sound continued as Emma stood out of the way, just watching in shock as the doctor looked up at the clock.

"That's it. Time of death, 1:07 pm." Dr. Whale said.

There was complete silence, besides the now useless heart monitor that let out a long, slow hum accompanied by a flat line that echoed what Whale had just said.

It was true. Killian Jones, charming swashbuckler and suave pirate, was dead.

Emma surprised herself as a tear fell from her eye. She just couldn't believe it. To think that just a week before she had chained him up at the top of the beanstalk, he had been alive and annoying and goofy and troublesome...

She just walked toward him. Although the sunlight was streaming in through a crack in the curtains, everything seemed gray. As if there were no light at all.

Emma rested her hand on his forehead, her fingers tingling from his cool skin.

If you were to ask Emma Swan how the events of that day happened, she would probably say some thing along the lines of "it was all a blur" and then hurry to change the subject. But in all actuality, she did remember. Every second of it, Emma knew what every frame of those events looked like, smelled like, felt like. Because upon seeing Hook's body lying so cold and so still, Emma had a split-second realization.

_I love you._ She said to him, if only in her mind. Then she leaned down and pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth.

A blast of wind nearly knocked her off of her feet. For a heart-stopping moment, nothing happened.

But then that annoyingly charming pirate gasped and looked Emma straight in the eyes. He smiled. "I love you too, Swan."


	2. Cinnamon

"So, Swan." Killian was practically skipping beside her down the sidewalk, multiple passersby turning to stare or snicker at his childish behavior. "I suppose now you've got no excuse to get rid of me. Seeing as I'm your true love..." He pronounced the last part in a taunting yet somehow endearing way.

Emma rolled her eyes, but still cracked a smile. Hook had been milking the whole "you said you love me" thing for the past twenty-four hours, but Emma hadn't really minded. Besides, he obviously loved her back, as the kiss wouldn't have worked otherwise. It was nice, having someone to love and for them to feel the same way.

Turning a corner and heading towards the diner, Killian received a whistle from a teenage girl who was sitting at an outside table, to which he replied with a head nod at Emma and he made a heart shape with his hand and hook. The girl made an audible whine, but did nothing else. Emma just ignored it.

Swan and pirate entered Granny's Diner and sat patiently on two barstools, saying nothing. Ruby walked up to them.

"Hey, Em. What'll it be?"The waitress asked, giving Hook a side-glance.

"Two hot cocoas." Emma replied.

"One for her and one for her true love." Hook added, grinning like a seven-year-old. He pointed to himself with his thumb in case Ruby hadn't realized he was talking about himself.

Emma rolled her eyes, the corner of her mouth twitching with a hint of a smile.

Ruby just smirked at them. "Cinnamon?"

"Please." Emma answered.

"You got it!" Ruby walked over to the machine and began preparing their drinks, while Hook tried to make conversation with his Swan girl. He tried suggesting that he teach Emma how to operate his ship, or her showing him how to work the "big metal carriage thing" she drove, or how the "little white torches" hanging from the ceiling worked. To the last one she replied, "They're lightbulbs, it's not rocket science!", which obviously made him ask "what's a rocket?"

This continued for a few minutes before Ruby sat their drinks in front of them.

"Thanks, Ruby." Emma said, sipping her cocoa slowly.

Killian, however, did not drink it. He stared at the cup before hesitantly grabbing it, only to yank his hand back in surprise.

"Bloody hell, that's hot!" He yelled, blowing on his hand dramatically like it was smoking.

Emma rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day. setting her mug on the counter and staring at him. "It's supposed to be hot, stupid. That's why it's called hot chocolate."

He humphed. "Well, you could've warned me, love." Hook reached for his mug again, not dropping it this time, bringing it up to his face.

He didn't drink it.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked.

"It smells funny." Killian wrinkled his nose to prove his point.

"It's good! Try it!" She insisted, taking a sip of her own to show him that it was, in fact, delicious.

He looked at her. Then to his mug. Then back at Emma.

Slowly, he brought it to his lips, getting whipped cream in the stubble on his upper lip. Emma looked at him, waiting for a response.

"Hmm." Killian sighed, taking another sip.

"You like it?" She asked him, laughing internally at how he looked, black pirate garb now stained with some hot chocolate he had spilled on the leather.

"Yes!' He exclaimed excitedly, manners thrown aside as he chugged the whole thing.

The sheriff laughed, handing him a napkin. "Nice job, pirate. You're a mess."

"You know you love it, Swan." He retorted.

She smiled, because it was true. She did love it.

And him.


End file.
